Most companies suck at the ability to communicate value for their product or service. Ultimately, communicating your value allows you to express your authority and ability to help your audience. It allows you to build trust and to draw their attention to the solutions to their problems. They may even become aware of problems they did not know they had – problems for which you have solutions.
Communicate Value by Stepping into Their Shoes
To communicate value is to gently lead your audience along on an enjoyable and respectful journey. A journey where they get to trust you and value your knowledge and expertise. Below are 11 tips to help you start your journey to communicate value effectively.
- Be their Wingman. Focus on what your customer wants to hear, not what you want to talk about. Focus on their problem. What is their pain point? How can you solve for it? Keeping the lens on them allows you to be brief and to the point. It is easy to get carried away sharing background info about you and your company. Regaling the benefits and features of products and services your client could not care less about. Your clients and prospects need less backstory than you think.
- Rev the Engine. No pain, no sale. People will only value your solution if they value their problem. If they do not think their problem is that bad, they will not pay you to solve it. When in doubt, emphasize the pain. Painkillers sell better than vitamins.
- Before and After Paints a Picture. An effective before-and-after skips all the boring parts. It is like a jump cut in a movie. It emphasizes *contrast*. This heightens drama and interest. The best before-and-after images or stories make you say wow.
- Do not bury the Lead. Instead, explain how much $ the problem costs and how it is making your customer’s life hard. Then talk about your product & how you will make their problem go away.
- Show Me. Do not Tell Me. I came across AI-driven software that reduces background noise on Zoom calls. Their website has a toggle on/off button where you can hear a sound sample without vs with their tool. That demo was worth 10,000 words.
Make their Eyes Light Up
- Make their Eyes Light Up (ELU). You already know when people are excited to hear a story. They perk up. Their energy level shifts. Suddenly, they look alive—and they want to hear what you have to say. Wes Kao of Maven calls this the Eyes Light Up (ELU) moment. This is the moment when your audience is viscerally, undeniably excited about what you are communicating. That is the reaction you are looking for. Whenever you tell a story, share your value proposition, or assess your positioning/messaging. Eyes lighting up is the ONLY reaction that matters. You can tell when people listen to be polite. But there are moments when aliveness flashes in their eyes–you just said something they care about. Watch for ELU. It is data on what to do more of.
- Wants and Needs – Focus on Both. People jump through hoops for things they want. Did you pick your spouse because they were the most convenient choice? Of course not. You picked them despite obstacles.
- Explain, “Why” and “Why now?” Most folks AGREE that your product is great–but they still do not buy. What are they really thinking? “Do I need this enough to pay $ right now? Or can I do this later?” Later often means never.
- Strive to Be/Strive to Do/Strive to Have. This is a classic framework in leadership coaching but applies to marketing. What does your product let your customer *be* that they were not before? What can they *do* now that they could not do? What do they *have* now that they did not have before?
- “Negative Ghostrider. The Pattern is Full.” You need to aim for an instant yes. Not a yes after 100+ touchpoints of nurturing. Think about what would get that reaction. You will not get an instant yes. But if you aim for it, it will speed up getting there.
- Consider overhauling. If you are struggling to describe your product’s value, figure out if the problem is (A) the marketing or (B) the offer itself. If your underlying offer is not good, no amount of improving the marketing will help.
Conclusion
The above 11 ways to communicate value have worked for our team for our own marketing and for each of our clients. Knowing them is one thing. Executing on them is a whole other thing. Unsure where to begin? Need a hand? Wingman Direct Marketing knows how to communicate value of your objectives from concept to strategy to execution to analysis to profit.
Interested? Book a Wingman today. You don’t have to fly solo.